Page 103 of Fake Game

Lee opens her mouth to protest, but Aleks squeezes her knee.

“Fine, for now.” She slumps back against the couch.

“Thank you.” Deer curtsies. “Now, I’m drained. I’m going back to try to get some sleep before doing this all again tomorrow morning.”

“But the room service hasn’t arrived yet,” Parker chimes in.

“Just have it sent over. I’m across the hall.” She picks up her phone and gives us all a twinkle of her fingers.

My body follows her automatically, standing up to trail behind her.

“Jackson.” Aleks’ voice is blunt.

I look at our leader, but he just raises his brows and shifts his eyes from me to the couch and back again.

Fine.

I’ll stay until the food arrives, then I’ll head over.

I slump back down on the couch, and Lee nudges my knee with her own. “Curse?”

“Sure,” I sigh, pulling out my phone and loadingGods League: Titan’s Curse, the mobile version of the acclaimed game.

“I’m not joining,” Parker defends.

“We didn’t ask you.” Aleks flicks his bottle cap at the blond and downs the last of his water before getting his own phone out.

We start playing a few rounds, and honestly, considering it’s a 4v4 version ofGods League,it would be better if we had a fourth team member to collude with rather than some random who could be halfway around the world.

I bet I could have convinced Deer.

I haven’t seen her play before, but after everything she told me about her family, she must have a dummy account.

Fuck.

Now, I’m thinking of her again. Her and all the secrets she’s been letting me in on…all the trust she’s been giving me.

But what is that trust worth if I can’t do anything to protect her?

“By the way, what happened to the guy? Was he banned?” Lee breaks me out of my spiral.

“What guy?”

“The creep from her signing line.”

The doorbell rings and Parker stretches up. “I dealt with him; he won’t be back.”

“Still the Covingtons’ golden child, aren’t you?”

“You bet, baby,” he winks before heading to the door and letting room service in.

One of the security team accompanies the hotel employee, and I can see it makes them all nervous with the way their hands shake lifting the silver cloches onto our table.

“Tower down,” Lee nudges me.

“Copy. Coming up mid.”

When the round ends, we all click off to grab our food—although Parker has already popped a bottle of champagne and is sipping on a glass as he waits for us.

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